Chapter 1.
"Splish, Splash. Splish, Splash." A girl sang, she sat near a window looking out at the rain drizzling down onto the cobblestone street.
"Molly!" A voice called from the downstairs kitchen. "Time for school!"
"Coming Mum!" The girl called back, she quickly changed and tied her hair into a low ponytail. She had olive skin and curly, chocolate brown hair. Her eyes were a deep green colour framed by long eyelashes. She had changed into a simple baby blue dress with a white 'Peter pan' collar.
She quickly ran downstairs, picked up her bag and a piece of toast and ran out the door. She slowed her pace once outside, taking in the scenery. She hid from the rain under shop awnings and stopped every now and then to look at shop windows. She knew that her parents would never allow her to indulge in such luxuries but she imagined herself, dancing around with her friends in a brand new dress or walking to school in a pair of shiny new shoes.
Molly often dreamt of having luxuries that could never be hers and she often would daydream a lot. She had to dream sometimes, living in Layca. Layca was a small town in the southern province of Ketarni, that was controlled by rules. The town was very strict, if you broke a rule, the outcome did not look good. Molly had seen many hangings, whippings and other means of torture and death. Nowadays you didn't see as many hangings because people were too scared to break the rules, but you always got the occasional rule breaker.
But Molly wasn't the little day dreaming kid anymore. She was fifteen. A experienced Layca citizen. She knew that she had to abide by the rules, or face punishment. Since Molly turned ten and she was told about the outside world beyond their small little town, she had never dreamed of leaving. She was content to grow old and die without leaving the secure borders surrounding her.
But Molly still went to school and had to avoid the rain by hiding under shop windows. And she would steal the occasional glance at a shop window if something caught her eye. But today wasn't your average school day.
When Molly arrived at school she got an unpleasant surprise. Sure, police were an active force within the town but when you saw them at school interrogating everyone who came in, you knew something was up. She considered the option of just to continue walking but she knew that try would make home visits tonight and she might as well get it over with now. So she lined up at the back of the queue that was forming at the front of the school, before long he felt a small tap on her shoulder and and she turned around to find her friend, Lilith.
"Hi," she chirped in her usual peppy tone. "Mind if I join you?"
"Sure." Molly replies, moving over so Lilith can join her in line. There were a few groans behind her but no one really wanted to complain. They weren't exactly 'looking forward' to their police interrogation.
"So, do you know what's going on?" Asked Lilith
"No clue, I was hoping you'd know.” replied Molly.
‘Well…” Lilith said with a sly look on her face.
“Spit it out then!” Molly said excitedly.
“Well,” Lilith started. “ I heard that a guy has escaped from some orphanage somewhere, in a neighbouring town, I think. But apparently he caused some pretty bad damage, as in, burnt down half the building.”
“Arsonist, eh?” Molly commented. “Sounds Interesting.”
“Yeah, well as I was saying,” Lilith continued. “He burnt down half the place and then ran off. he’s been hunted down ever since.”
“Well you said he came from an orphanage, so he wouldn’t be of age yet, right.” stated Molly
“Yeah, I suppose.”
